Isn't it always the way? You need a holiday straight after a holiday? Well, it's not like I've just got back from Taize, and I've been back at school almost a week... but I'm definitely not back into the swing of it yet! I made the mistake of trying to get by this week without reallllllly preparing lessons, because I've had so much else to do. Last week I seemed to pull it off okay, but this morning's lessons weren't that great (they never seem to be on a Tuesday :s). The rest of the day made up for it though, and I hope that from tomorrow (when we're over the "first week back" syndrome) it will be ok!! Maybe I'll even have some time to prepare some proper lessons over the weekend, now I'm not going up to Trento as I had planned to.

Gosh, what a long ramble about nothing... sorry!!! I'll be more interesting next time, I promise!

In terms of the workshops, the first one I went to was "The Eucharist and the Early Christians" which was fascinating. Brother Emile was talking a lot about how the eucharist is community and life rather than being about the ceremony. A lot of what he was saying reflected my own thoughts and frustrations about not being able to take communion in Italy, and at the end I went up and asked him about it. He agreed that it's a great shame, but said that maybe soon the Catholic church will change their mind because it is something which is supposed to bring people together and not divide them...  I doubt it, but we'll see!
I've just remembered that he also said that I should write to the bishop of Brescia because Eucharistic Hospitality DOES exist, which means that I should  be allowed to take communion in the absence of an Anglican church. He said that individual priests SHOULD know about this... the three asked so far in Brescia haven't seemed to... writing to the bishop seems a bit extreme, but perhaps I should!

Other highlights included the UK regional meeting which consisted of the lovely Brother Paolo, myself and one other girl! In fact the first 10 minutes were just Brother Paolo and me, until Serena turned up. I think the UK could have done a bit better than that, but then in fact it was nice to have a chance to really chat to Brother Paolo. Normally there are so many people that you can't really talk like that. He was telling us about he chose to be Paolo because he loved Italy so much (he had to choose a new name overnight because there was already a Brother Paul).  I was also chatting to him about living in Italy and the communion issue, and his response was "poor church". He said that he would have just taken communion and not said anything. I'm still inclined to just go to a new church and do that, but it would be difficult to pretend in all seriousness to be Catholic for other reasons, so I'd soon be "found out"! I am dying to find a nice church community here, not to cut myself off from them all by breaking the "law" !

On Saturday night a new brother made his life committment which was a very special moment. It gave me goose pimples! His family were there and his mum was crying like at a wedding, and when he hugged her and the rest of his family I thought I was going to cry too!! I was sitting in a perfect viewing position for that, right opposite. It was lovely.

Easter Sunday was something else. I didn't take the picture at the top obviously, but we had the candles during the Eucharist just like that. Incredible to be celebrating the resurrection with so many other people. The best bit had to be afterwards when they went through the "Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!" sequence in every language under the sun, with all the various nationalities shouting out the response from the various corners of the enormous "airport hangar" church!

After the service we went and toasted Easter with a drink at good old Oyak. Then went and queued up for lunch, all at the adults' tent so we could eat together. There was a moment of hilarity when the chant sung before lunch was the very slow and reflective "De Noche" (by night) - at 1pm in the sunshine, on Easter Sunday. Oh well!!

After lunch some people had brought Easter Eggs which they very kindly shared. This picture below makes me laugh because of the German woman on the right, who totally cracked me up. She and a friend somehow ended up sitting on the table with us but they had got up to leave just before the eggs came out. They were standing by the door, and when that woman saw the eggs her eyes lit up and she said something to her friend, then sort of sidled her way back to the table and sat down! She was very happy to help eat the chocolate, and then as we were packing up to go to the coach, she asked if she could take a small egg as a "souvenir" for her husband in Germany. Claudia said yes, at which point the woman helped herself to three eggs!! I found it really funny! I like this photo because you can see that she's got her eye on the bowl of eggs!!

Sadly there always comes a point when it's time to leave Taizé, and for us it was at 2pm yesterday.  I bought the newly released 2010 CD Mane Nobiscum which will keep me going for a while. I'm pleased because it's got several of the chants that I wished were on other CDs I've got. I can't wait to go back again though and will certainly try and make it in the summer. Brother Paolo actually suggested that I go for 4-6 weeks! Not sure I'll manage that, but it's a nice idea!

Quick run through of the past few (busy!) days:

Thursday
This was an interesting day, 300+ out of the 800 students at school were on a demonstration and didn't come to school  (they definitely like a strike or two in this country!!) . This made lessons a bit easier as they were smaller classes, and one class didn't turn up at all so had that one off! Anyway it was the last day of term (for me! they still had 2 days to go!) so we played a few games and stuff which I think went down well...they were certainly noisy anyway and it was great fun! (During the game "Back to the Board" - the best thing that CELTA has taught me I reckon!!). As I said last time, I love my students, they're great

Friday
CELTA...teaching Elementary was definitely a very different experience, but it went fine. Generally good feedback but I need to work on grading my language more. It's so hard to remember that you can't use half the words you know because they won't have a clue what you're talking about. Like saying something simple like "did you guess which room?" gets a blank look and a HUH?
Was slightly frustrating that 5 minutes before the end of a 2 hour lesson (of which I took the last 40 minutes) about have got and haven't got, one of the students asked "what does have got mean?" is it "ce l'ha?". Seriously, were you paying attention to ANY of the lesson?!?!
It's a challenge, but a good one. We've also got our next assignment to work on, so that'll keep me busy!

Saturday
In the morning I was observing a lesson at school in Verona so I spent the day there and stayed over at Giulia's house (a fellow CELTA participant). The lesson I observed was an elementary level and was interesting to watch, but not as interesting as when I observed an Intermediate class, or when we observed Paul (tutor) taking our own elementary class. Still, I've now done my 6 hours so anything else I do is extra and not compulsory. I'd like to observe a post intermediate or advanced class if possible to get the full range of levels.
After that was finished, I got to spend the afternoon enjoying the gorgeous bright sunshine. I decided that I would properly explore across the river Adige this time. I've been to that area before, but hadn't actually been in to things (the Teatro Romano for example). I spent the afternoon doing that, a good couple of hours of which involved sitting at the top of the Teatro steps reading my book in the sunshine with an adorably cute cat on my lap! It was a very well looked after cat (I gave it the once over for fleas too!), well fed etc, and simply the friendliest cat I've ever met! It appeared out of nowhere and started clambering all over me, and then just settled down. It sat on me for about an hour! Some Italian girls had seen it further up the hill and they came running over to talk to it, so for quite a while I had the cat on me, three girls sitting around me petting it too, and their parents sitting nearby talking about it as well. So adorable! After a while it very sensibly got up and went to sit in the shade...I should have done the same, I caught the sun sitting there for so long!

Afterwards I visted a few of the churches over that side, and then walked back along the river and back to Piazza delle Erbe to meet up with Giulia, who was working in the square. We enjoyed a lovely couple of spritzes sitting in the piazza (at a discounted price because she's a regular!) and then headed back to hers before going out for the evening.
The evening was her, me and two of her best (English) friends. It was a real laugh... we were going to go to this organic buffet place which looked fab, but unfortunately was extremely busy and going to be a very long wait. So we decided to go for Indian instead, which I was very pleased about because I've been craving an Indian recently. We went to this place that they knew about, which we have all agreed will NEVER be set foot in again! It was pretty bad... we (they!) actually complained and they gave us some money back from the bill. Anyway it gave us some very good laughs, of the stomach hurting variety. The women were real characters! It was also interesting because they are both English teachers here (having been in Italy for 20+ years)...one does half teaching and half translating, but her teaching is in house at GlaxoSmithKline, and she suggested I contact big companies in Brescia (if I can find out what they are!) to see if there are any in-house teaching opportunities... I'll have to investigate!
After the restaurant, to cheer ourselves up, we went to a bar and got cocktails (Strawberry Colada for me)... so 2 spritz, 2 Kingfisher beers with the curry and then a rum cocktail... hehe. With the clocks going forward and getting home late, getting up at 7.45am was not ideal!! But it was worth it... and so kind of Giulia to put me up

At lunchtime I met up with Laura, who is doing her Language Assistant placement there. We had a good story swapping session - love swapping stories about the crazy Italian school system, crazy lack of organisation etc etc. Then we went for GELATO!! Hehe. I wasn't very adventurous and had my usual fave: frutti di bosco and cocco. Yum yum! We sat in a square for a while watching pigeons carry out elaborate mating rituals (if you're ever sitting in a square with pigeons on a very sunny day, watch them!!). Then we got picked up by Laura's friends to go to a park...via a gelateria for GELATO!! Yum yum! This time there were sooooooooo many more flavours to choose from and it was super difficult! I always go for fruit ice cream, so I was tempted to get Tiramisu and Biscotto, but in the end I failed and went for a fruit choice again. However, I did branch out because I had "frutti dimenticati" (forgotten fruits) and ananas. It was super yummy. I was most excited because when she gave us the list of forgotten fruits I actually knew what they were, even though they were quite obscure, because I spent the whole of a private conversation lesson last week talking about fruit. Don't ask me how we got onto the subject because I've no idea, but I learnt a lot of Italian words for exotic fruits!!! I love it so much when I hear a new word that I've learnt. I heard someone in the staffroom the other day describe himself as "rimbambito" - a word which Giulia had by random chance taught me the week before. Otherwise I would have had no idea what he was talking about! I love it!!!
Anyway, we went to the park and sat in the sunshine for a while with Laura's lovely friends, and then they kindly dropped me at the station just in time to get my train. I was slightly worried when I went to the ticket machine and it warned me that the train was leaving within 5 mins and was I sure I wanted to get a ticket for that train? Ran to get on it and did, and then had to sprint at Parma to get onto the second train because it was just leaving...but managed that too, luckily as I don't think there was another one! I spent the whole journey convinced I'd actually got on the wrong train because I hadn't checked as many times as I usually do (not having had time). I didn't recognise a single station we stopped at, it being a completely different route from normal, and it was only when we arrived in Brescia that I was actually sure I was on the right train! Phew!

Complete set of photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198082&id=223300445&l=e3731273ce

Things that make me happy:

- My students. I know this is a bit premature, as I still have a term (8/9 lessons) with them, but I'm really going to miss them! Even the ones that never ever stop talking, don't listen to a word I say etc etc... most of them are just great fun and I'm sad to think that I'm 2/3 of the way through now!

- Homemade pizza. Last night I had another super lovely evening at my favourite Brescian household... we made pizza! I helped a little tiny bit, and it was great fun. I adore that family.

- Good Italian books. I finished 'Una manciata di more' by Ignazio Silone. I'd previously read Fontamara (at university), and one of the families I work for lent me this. To start with I wasn't sure about it, but then I got really into it and couldn't wait to finish! Now I'm thoroughly enjoying yet another Fabio Volo book (love him!). This is his latest: "Il tempo che vorrei". When I finish it I've got another one waiting for me on my shelf that I just bought.

- Italian! I've just bought (will hopefully get it tomorrow) a new Italian coursebook. Although I've got millions of different Italian coursebooks at home (from having done various Italian courses over the years), I didn't bring any with me. Also the last course I did was B2 and my level now is definitely C1 (higher). So I have bought a book that goes from B2-C1, to go back over some of the grammar etc. I can't wait!!! I'm so sad, haha.

- Sunshine. It's getting really hot and sunny here now. Hopefully it will last. It's going to take a while to get used to the heat though. I'm rubbish in the heat! Especially at school where I get super hot teaching anyway just from standing in a class full of 25 kids talking for an hour... anyway, the sunshine is nice, and it's time for lots of ice cream!

- Taize. One week today and I'll be just setting off on the bus I can't wait!

- Holiday time. Yay! Tomorrow is my last day at school before the holidays. Apparently there is a student strike, so I've no idea how many of my students (in my 5 classes) will actually be there. Hopefully at least a few!! Then on Friday I am teaching at CELTA (which does NOT make me happy!!!! until after at least!), then holidays!! I am doing a few private lessons on Monday/Tuesday/Weds, so it's not entirely holiday time until Wednesday afternoon, but yay! Can't wait

I'm sure there were many other things that I was thinking of when I started this, but I think that'll do for now!!

Yesterday we had a nice light day at CELTA. During the morning we had our tutorials, and then a nice fun vocabulary practice session, then in the afternoon we were observing experienced teachers take the classes we are switching to next week. That meant we finished an hour and half early so we were all able to go to the pub at 4.45pm! Nice for the people who usually have to rush off to catch trains back to places like Florence. Starting drinking early is badddd though... it didn't take long until mi girava la testa... (was a bit tipsy).

Anyway, was all good fun, and I feel it was a valid celebration after a good tutorial. This was the half way stage and we had to do a self-assessment and then the tutor went through and put his own thoughts. We had to mark ourselves "Not to standard, To standard or Above standard" for this stage of the course against all the criteria and then overall. I had put to standard for everything. My tutor had put 18 above standards and marked me above standard over all. He said "I've never done this before, I'm taking a gamble, don't have a crisis now!!". He then gave me lots of useful tips and stuff for the rest of the course - he said that it's not about whether I pass but how well I pass. No pressure then!!!
So I'm pretty pleased with that! Make that over the moon with that!! I was worried that it was a flukey one off with that tutor observing last time (the week he made everyone photocopy my lesson plan to model theirs on!!!), but he said it was from what the other tutor had said as well. Anyway, as I said, no pressure..... ! Hahaha.

Next week we switch levels and our group are now teaching the Elementary class. I've never taught at this level before so I'm pretty apprehensive about it... you have to be that much clearer with your instructions and demonstrations, and it can all fall to pieces if you just miss a beat. But, fingers crossed!

Bit worried about next year because I don't know how likely it is that another secondary school will have a need for me (they've all got madrelingue already). I would prefer to work for a language school anyway, but there isn't really a great selection in Brescia. I'm torn between the original plan of applying for language school jobs anywhere in Italy, and the fact that I have decided I definitely want to stay in Brescia because I am settled here and have made lots of friends and contacts. I am quite fed up of moving around and starting over...it takes time to make friends in a foreign country, and it's a shame to leave just when things are getting really good. So, I want to stay, but I suppose if jobs are a problem then I'll have to see about moving anyway...

4 more days at school before Easter holidays. Woohoo! That means 11 days until Taize trip time

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK, so Happy Mother's Day Mum! (Don't worry, I have already sent greetings via other methods as well!). In Italy it's not mother's day until May, but last Tuesday it was "La Festa delle Donne", celebrating all women, so the Italian mamme got a lot of love that day as well. Women get given yellow mimosa flowers and lots of auguri (best wishes).

Last night I had a lovely night out. A few of the people in the choir I sing in were going to a dinner with people from a Latin-American dancing course they are doing. One of them had invited me to come along, with the possibility of going to a discoteca to dance after. I'll admit that I was slightly apprehensive about the whole thing, particularly the discoteca aspect as I pretty much hate dancing. Big dinners like that can be tricky when you only know a couple of people, especially when everyone is talking very fast at each other and you've got different conversations going on all around you. It can be difficult as the only foreigner... but, all the fears were allayed and I had a lovely evening!

We didn't meet at the restaurant until 9pm. Now, I'm getting more used to eating a bit later than my customary 6.30pm, but sitting down at 9pm was verrrrry late! Lovely dinner though - le crespelle to start, then risotto, then meat + potatoes (managed to avoid eating any of the meat), then cheesecake to finish. Yum yum. Nice dinner and also good conversation...a very animated discussion about marriage, men and housework!
After the meal it turned out not everyone was going on to the club, which was rather a relief. I was able to go to a pub (and it actually was really very like a pub rather than a bar) with 7 other people, which I really enjoyed. It's much nicer to have a smaller number of people so that you can actually talk to them and only one person tends to be talking at a time etc! I'd had a few glasses of wine by this point and actually started talking French, then got some Italian muddled up in the French, and then resorted to English... exactly the reverse of what I normally do in England where a few glasses of wine makes me come out with French/Italian. Clearly wine just has this multilingual effect on me... anyway, it was all good fun and I was really really glad I went!

Next week is going to be extra busy. I've taken on another private pupil who wants to do the Trinity exam that I'm preparing students for at school. The exam is in a month's time, so she's got a lot of ground to catch up, and has therefore booked 2.5 hours of lessons with me on Tuesday (but split up across lunch). At least I know the material well and have already prepared everything for the classes at school, but I need to work out how to get through everything with her in however many lessons we have (and I'm not yet sure how many she wants to have). It's all go! I have to say, I'll be quite relieved when the Trinity exam is done... I think I'm more nervous about it than the students are!

Yesterday, Wednesday 10th March 2010:

It had seemed like spring was well on its way, nice clear blue skies and sunshine. Then someone decided that was boring, and tipped another load of white stuff all over Brescia (along with most of Italy and the rest of Europe that was affected). Unbelieveable! It actually didn't stop snowing all day long, and into the night too, although most of it has gone now.

The view from my window in the morning

Some shots taken at school later in the morning:

Sunday again already...I honestly don't know where the days and weeks are going. Everything seems to be flying past! Not in a bad way, just in the kind of way where everything is going along nicely.

Although I still have to find a school for next year, I'm feeling happy knowing that I'm staying here another year. I'm just assuming that I will find one, somewhere. I think in the past the thing about staying only a year in a place is that it's so frustrating...just when you are feeling really settled, you know the place, are starting to make proper friends etc, you have to up sticks and do it all again. That's what I don't want to have to do this time. I'm determined that I will find somewhere, and then I can think about where to live next year as well (although I may just stay here, there are reasons why I may prefer to move).

Some people are on the case for me... my tutor at the school I work at is keeping an ear out for people. She already introduced me to a teacher at a good private school. The teacher took all my details and said she would let me know. They already have a madrelingua but she said you never know, and they are possibly opening a Liceo Linguistico soon. I'm not expecting anything to come of it, but you do never know, and networking is famously the most important thing here...
My tutor has also given my number to someone in a private school (of the same sort I'm working in now, only private) in a small place outside Brescia who actually NEED a madrelingua. The only problem is that it's quite far from Brescia and I don't have a car, so it would be tricky. Most schools do already have people, but then you never know how long they are going to stay etc etc, so it could be that there are places opening up. Just gotta keep my ear to the ground!

I was very excited last week because I got to go to an OUP presentation of the coursebook Headway. It's the book they use at school (in their other lessons, not generally with me) and also the book we are being trained to use on the CELTA course. It was a presentation about the digital version, with a talk on "Technology and Teaching". It was fascinating because it really fitted in to the CELTA course. The best bit was that we got a free goodie bag: a nice OUP canvas bag, a free copy of Headway Digital Pre-Int level (very very useful), a free copy of the Oxford Learner's Thesaurus and an OUP CD carry case (very useful for all the coursebook CDs that cause the books to bend awkwardly otherwise). I was possibly the most excited person in the room!!! It was also nice to hear a bit of British English being spoken..... and to know what he was talking about when he was talking about Marmite and the "love it or hate it" campaign...

I haven't been on a trip this weekend. Typically after having decided not to because the weather wasn't great, it was then a gorgeously sunny day yesterday. I wandered around Brescia a bit instead, but otherwise just got well ahead with lesson planning. I think I'm basically done up to Easter now which is fab. Always a few bits to consolidate, but I feel happy that I'm ahead. I've also submitted my second CLIL assignment and the first CELTA one so those are two less things to worry about! I found the CLIL one fascinating because it reflected a lot of the concepts we studied in 4th year in the Language Contact module. Lots of words cropped up that I wouldn't have had a clue what they were talking about if I hadn't done that! I do love it when things fit together and it seems like there's a point to having studied things!

As mentioned in the last entry, I had decided that it was high time for another trip. I've been much less able to go on trips recently due to time constraints. I was going to save the trip until next Saturday (which would have made more sense, for various reasons), but I got excited planning it on Thurs night and decided I couldn't wait. Plus the forecast for today was great (for the morning at least), so I wanted to just go! In the end, it has turned out to be a sort of post-CELTA reward. The 1 hour lesson went really well and the feedback was great, so I was really chuffed. I'm now half way through the teaching practice section and have the next 3 weeks off observed teaching which is great!!

So, the place I had decided to go on this trip was to Pavia. Previously when I had looked into the timings I hadn't been sure that I would be able to fit what I wanted to into the day but in the end I was able to work it out so that I could - yay!

Basically the main attraction is the 'Certosa di Pavia', which is about 10 mins on the train from Pavia at its own little stop. The trains are VERY irregular, so I had to get the train from Brescia at 6.27am (ouch!), arriving at 8am. The station was one of those tiny ones where you have to wait for the train to move off so that you can cross back across the platform to get out! From the station it was about a 15 minute walk all the way round the walls to get to the monastery. It's in a lovely secluded spot, very very peaceful. The weather was gorgeous during the morning (very sunny, think I might actually have caught it a bit) and blue sky...shame it got duller in the afternoon.
Anyway, I wandered around at a leisurely pace, knowing that the monastery didn't open til 9am. I arrived early enough to have to wait quite a while. At first I was waiting on my own and was wondering if I was going to be the only one mad enough to turn up for opening time, but gradually lots of people started arriving and we were quite a large group by the time the doors opened at 9am.

The place was absolutely stunning. The church itself has the most elaborate facade - intricate carvings and detail on every single inch. It's magnificent.

I explored as much as you are allowed to on your own, and then, as instructed, asked when there would be a guided tour. The man's answer was "later". I asked "when" later. "It depends"...."whenever he turns up". Ok....
So this was about 9.30am and I had no idea when I was going to be able to see the rest, but as it turned out, he turned up at 10.10am which was perfect.

The tour was led by one of the Carthusian monks, released from his strict vow of silence to do the tour. The guy was absolutely brilliant! Really thorough explanation of everything, but also such a great sense of humour. His way of talking just brought a smile to everyone's face. It ended up with about 70 of us on the tour and at one point, after telling us all about one of the bits of the church, he had everyone say a Padre Nostro - it was a lovely touch. I'm still quite excited about knowing it off by heart in Italian now (even if it's not actually that impressive to do so!!). Anyway, with him we got to see lots of otherwise closed bits... the refectory, the large cloister which is surrounded by the monks' houses (no longer in use as currently being restored). We got to go inside one as well which was fascinating. The whole thing really was incredible...no wonder the Rough Guide says it's "one of the most elaborate monasteries in Europe".

Now the whole thing was free, but obviously donations were more than welcome. I'd been very stupid and forgotten to fill up my wallet (having run out of money the day before). Luckily I had realised this on the way to the train station at 6am this morning and managed to get some cash out from my English account, but the machines always give you €50 notes. So that was all I had... so I wasn't able to give a donation on the way out of the tour, and felt really guilty about that as it had been so amazing. So I went and spent lots of money in the shop instead, buying a bottle of Nocino liqueur (made by the monks). No idea what it will be like or whether I will like it, but I was glad to make a contribution, even if I did get something in return for it!!

The tour finished in pretty good timing as the next (and only train for an hour) was at 12.03. So I wandered back to tiny station to get a train on to Pavia. The ticket machine was out of service, and just before the train departed a Trenitalia man went past so I asked him, and he said I had to go to the bar... err, great. So I said I didn't have time now and he said just to ask the capotreno on the train. So I got on, walked and found the guy and bought a ticket off him. He said "there is a machine at that station you know" and I said "yes, but it's broken" (as I had already explained to him). He didn't enjoy selling me a ticket, but too bad, it's his job!

Next stop was Pavia city itself. I have to say that I wasn't as excited about this as I thought I was going to be. Perhaps because the morning had just been so good, and also partly because the skies had gone quite grey. Also there was the ever-annoying fact of arriving at 12.15pm just when EVERYTHING is closed, so I had to just wander around until 3pm when everything opened again. Always find that a bit tedious.
Still, there were a lot of interesting things. The Duomo is unfortunately being restored at the moment (both inside and out) so that was a bit disappointing. The university is one of the oldest in Europe and I enjoyed having a look round that. The medieval towers were interesting, it reminded me of Bologna (also saw a large rat running around...interesting, but not in quite the same way!!). Lots of interesting churches (once it had come round to 3pm and I could actually get in them!!).

I was very lucky on my return trip. I thought I was arriving at Pavia station about 25 mins early for a train, but when I got there, the train I had originally thought about getting was JUST leaving. So I ran down, stamped my ticket in the machine at the bottom and jumped on the train. Luckily the train didn't leave straight away because when I looked again at my ticket, I realised it hadn't actually stamped it! I think it had run out of ink. Anyway so then I had to get off...as I went to get off the whistle blew and I thought I was going to be stuck on and just have to have the second "discussion" of the day with the capotreno. But then I decided just to get off and wait for the later train after all. But then there was another validation machine right by the train door, so I stamped the ticket and was still JUST in time to jump back on the train (as the doors were closing). It was nice to get home a bit earlier, having had the early start (and a late night last night as well after a long day in Verona!)

All in all a lovely day... just means I have to cram all the lesson planning into just one day (tomorrow) as I haven't actually planned some of my school lessons yet. Usually I am a few weeks ahead with those so only have to worry about the private lessons at the weekend, but the school lessons have caught up with me and I'm now behind. Lots of work for tomorrow!! Still, at least I don't have CELTA to worry about for a few weeks, and I've finished the first assignment (due next week) and most of the 2nd one (due in 2 weeks), so I can definitely be a tiny bit more relaxed for a bit. Maybe I'll go somewhere next Saturday as well!!

For some reason Xanga is refusing to let me add photos to this blog, but anyway, the complete set of photos are here (you shouldn't have to log in): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195831&id=223300445&l=d3a464846a

I haven't really got anything new to report, but I wouldn't want to be accused of neglecting this blog

I've been quite tired this week, but am feeling much more refreshed now, and am actually quite looking forward to getting my first 1-hour CELTA lesson over and done with tomorrow. Basically we have to do 4 lessons at each level (3 x 40 mins and 1 x 60 mins) and I've done the three 40 minute ones. After tomorrow, I have a few weeks off teaching while the others do their 60 min lessons, and then we switch levels. My group is switching from Intermediate - Elementary, which I feel is going to be quite a steep transition... (from learners who can actually understand and talk to learners who really can't...). Anyway, we'll worry about that later. I'm feeling reasonably prepared for tomorrow, except the usual worries about timings and getting through everything in the 60 minutes!

It'll be nice to have a bit of time "off" then (although we now have two assignments on the go as well!). I'm even planning another trip. Haven't been on one for aaaaaaaaaages! Watch this space...